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Uommentary
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THE OUTSIDER.......LOOKING INSIDE
Not everyone
[ = i
IS invited
Sources close to “The Outsider” are very disap
pointed that not everyone was invited to the recent
news conference that Woody Merry held. Allegedly,
Ryan B. nor any other members of Black media were
asked to attend. Sources close to “The Outsider” say
this is because, allegedly, Merry only “likes to sue
Black people.” Ryan B. got wind of the recent news
conference that was to announce Merry's plan to sue
Commissioner Williams and tried to attend the con
ference.
Merry turned Ryan B. away from the event stating
that the press conference was private. Now has anyone
ever seen or heard of a private news conference? How
ever, none of the black media received an invitation.
When did the media rules change? By any stretch of
the imagination, does this seem fair? By definition,
‘discrimination and to discriminate is to make a dif
ference in treatment or favor based upon mattesr other
than merit (i.e. color).” Does this smell like a lawsuit
to you or just “The Outsider?”
GUEST COMMENTARY By 8.8. Robinson
Addressing the most painful discrimination
There is no denying that
racism is a truly pernicious
form l:‘f,s discrimination.
ite laws making racial dis
ci'i.crsn?mation illc:gal,ng social pres
sure and economic incentives
favoring racial harmony, it is an
unfortunate reality that there
will always be people still want
ing to force their will on others
because of skin color.
There is a discrimination, how
ever, that can be even more per
nicious and more painful - and
even deadly. This discrimina
tion when people are
aflm diseases such as
sickle cell anemia, diabetes and
cancer. It’s similar to targeted
racial d;:lcer;'(mination.f wh;:c
only a group feels the
stinln)é. Unlike racial dlsmgn
nation, genetic make-up often
causes disease; and, worst of all,
sdentists have yet to develop
cures for many of them.
We can't pass laws to stop dis
eases. Oti,lr hqhfi dc‘mn encour
us to live lifestyles,
;%ft thar's not alwa)ys enough.
“selects” someone for a disease,
€5 cuing poin. sod ailiing
is inevitable.
Allis no lost, l;;wcvcr Scien
tists are vigilandy seeking cures
and laboratories are abuzz with
research aimed at wiping away
the painful effects of “disease
discnmination.”
As black Americans, we are
sty o g ]
)
cimination. Occasionally, we
even spend great sums of
money to Inngvr discrimina
tion cases so a few can be com
pensated for the harm they
experienced. This is an honor
abs: pursuit, but it can be
daunung because - as men
tioned earlier -the actions of
the ignorant almost guarantees
that a similar case wilfi)c fought
again weeks, months or years
later. Given what we know
about disease discrimination,
we might consider altering the
way we spend some ()(g our
valuable resources.
What would happen if we
refocused support we might
normally provide for a case of
racial J;scrimination toward
combating sickle cell anemia -
the genetic blood disorder that
ofvfi'c]h one in 12 black Amer
icans carries the genetic trait?
Recent medical ati%fi?\oes in the
fields of gene therapy and bone
marrow transplantation give
hopc d’utd a ((1.'111'6 fo‘ri this dL'Elili—
tating an isease ma
soomlngc mfl but there l)s,
still much to be done.
If we band together, our
efforts could produce a cure for
::lldpc pg:"ple an?;\uia that wgol;élg
of all races -
in particular. It would be a
substantial and lasunivlctory
We must go beyond hypothe
sizing and make this men
Beyond what is already under
way, we must fund new
research with the same enthusi
asm that we once used to rout
the Ku Klux Klan. It may take
years but, given recent advances
in genetic science, we can be
assured that a cure will be iden
tified. Disease discrimination in
the form of sickle cell anemia
anTlE:t' why its disconcerti
s it's
AUGUSTA FOCUS
GUEST COMMENTARY By Scott C. Syphax
Stealing the Dream
In 1997, a young African-
American preacher asked for
the local office of the US.
Department of Housing and
Urlan Development for
approval to help 160 families
purchase duplex homes in a
stm?zjing south Sacramento,
Calif. neighborhood by giving
them downpayment assistance
grants in order to obtain a
mortgage insured by the Feder
al i?ousinr Administration
(FHA). Unfinown to him, or
the families that bought these
homes, the prc that he
conceived, the l:]‘chcmiah Pro
gram, helped launch the home
ownership revolution of the late
1990 s that saw African-Ameri
can and minority homeowner
ship rise to unprecedented lev
els in the United States.
According to a 2004 study by
the Milken Institute and the
U.S. Conference of Mayors,
the average low income family
making $35,000 that pur
chased a home between 1997
and 2003 experienced a net
wealth gain of SIB,OOO because
of being a homeowner. These
families could not have pur
chased a home without the
downpayment assistance that
the Nehemiah Program provid
ed.
The name — Nehemiah —
is important. The namesake
that was chosen for the pro
grfum was intentional. Born out
of Antioch Progressive Baptist
Church, the Nchcmial?agm
gram, was named for the
prophet well known through
out the Christian faith as the
historic rebuilder of cities. Like
the Nehemiah of the Old Tes
tament, this new Nehemiah
was conceived to rebuild the
American community one
family and one neighborhood
at a time.
groups seem more interested in
the number of black actors on
TV shows or black coaches and
owners in professional sports.
Do they lack the vision to com
prehend the value of ending a
form of insidious discrimina
tion and unnecessary suffering
in our community that doesn't
involve race?
As ratonal individuals, we
should be wise enough to rec
ognize discrimination is flat-out
wrong. No one wants to be on
the receiving end of discrimina
tion. We must also realize that
people are not perfect and that
they will discriminate. They
always have and - barring a
major change in the way the
world wms - they always will.
On the other hand, there is joy
and hope in knowing that
today’s science presents us with
an opportunity to eliminate
disease discrimination. We
can stop the pain and suffering,
If we use our resources to aid
science in curing disease dis
crimination, we can save lives.
We can help obliterate pain;
thereby enabling us to more
freely fight other forms of dis
crimination.
8.8. Robinson, Ph.D. &s a
network Project 21. You can
visit his website at wuw blackeco
nomics.org. Comments may be
sent 1o Project 2 | @nationalcen
tevorg .
The non-profit that housed
this paradigm-changing pro
gram, Nehemiah Corporation
of America (NCA) grew into
one of the largest African-
American-led community
development corporations in
the United States with almost
S2OO million in revenue at its
peak in 2004. The Nehemiah
Program and its imitators that
followed to over 40 per
cent of g:w Federal Housing
Administrations annual mort
gage production.
As of June 2007, National
Homeownership Month, the
Nehemiah Program will have
helped more than 229,000
families purchase their first
homes across every state in the
country and has given out
almost S9OO million in grants
without receiving a single dime
from cither government or
foundations. Nehemiah creat
ed a model where its downpay
ment assistance comes é:m
revolving funds constantly
replenished by contributions
from the realtors, lenders, and
private home sellers across the
country.
Today, however, Nehemiah’s
future is under assault. Like
other Black institutions such as
the NAACE, the federal gov
ernment is attempting, by regu
lation, to end the downpay
ment assistance model
Nehemiah created by issuing a
E:r)pomi regulation that would
non-profits or governments
from o(gering downpayment
assistance where a seller makes a
contribution t a fund that
offers grants to working class
homebuyers.
While some imitators of
Nehemiah have engaged in
practices that deserve increased
rchlation and oversight —
which Nehemiah supports and
bags: ‘Being mistreated in the North'
York Times reporter who
spent much of his early
career covering the Black
Panther Party, know about
being mistreated in the
North. He remembered:
“... I was riding to work. |
was reading the Post and
saw my by-line on a story.
[t was a story [ hadn’t writ
ten. I'd never seen this
story before. ‘By Earl
Caldwell.” T couldn’t wait
to get in the city room and
tell the city editor that
somebody had made a mis
take.
“Look at this,” I said.
‘Somebody really goofed
up. My name is on this
story!””
“The city editor said,
‘You hadn’t had a byline in
a while. We figured you
wanted to see your name
in the paper, so we put
your name on that
story...l called 7he New
York Times the same day.”
Throughout their careers,
Black journalists have had
their talent questioned.
Austin Scott was covering
upheaval in Miami when
his veracity came under
attack.
“I was in the phone
booth, and somebody on
the second floor on the
motel balcony across the
street starting shooting at
the cops, who were behind
advocates —the federal gov
ernment is pushing an agenda
which instead “mends it dont
end it” seeks to absolutely ban a
model that has helped so many.
Unlike the sub-prime loans
that are currently under scruti
ny because of terms and prac
tices that take advantage of low
income homebuyers, 98 per
cent of Nchcmia}\ grant fami
lies receive their loans com
bined with FHA insurance
ensuring that the loans meet
the Federal Government's
requirements for fairness.
Indeed, some in the mort
gage industry believe that the
success of the Nehemiah Pro
gram led the mortgage industry
to change its historic discrimi
natory practices and for better
and worse start to view minori
ty communities as viable mar
kets for their products includ
ing sub-prime.
Cynically, this proposal is
pushed by the HUD Inspector
General who has railed against
Nehemiah and the low income
families it serves since its begin
ning in 1997.
First, they claimed that giving
downpayments to those with
out savings of their own was
helping tfimc “unworthy” of
homeownership. Later, they
claimed that Nehemiah's
default performance was higher
than average.
After Nfifcmiah refuted their
claims, they then forced FHA
to issue this proposed regula
tion under the guise of trying to
“protect the financial solvency
of FHA” by killing this model
knowing that if FHA loses the
40 percent of its current busi
ness, it might permanently
cripple this program. In others
words, the IG’s position is “In
order to save you FHA, we
must destroy you.”
me somewhere. The cops
returned fire. I was describing
on the telephone to the AP
bureau what was going on.
The firing back and Forti;.
“The guy I was dictating to
interrupted. ‘You filed a lot of
this kinda stuff yesterday. You
filed a lot this morning. And
we're getting queries from
newspapers in other parts of
the country saying that they
don’t believe your copy,
because no one else is report
ing from Miami the kinds of
things you're reporting.’
“He paused for a minute.
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June 21, 2007
This is certainly a sad fate for an
agency that has been the pri
mary means for low income
and minority families to enter
homeownership for over half a
century.
Some believe that like the
assault on the NAACP that
these cynical actions are not
random, but a coordinated
effort by those who care litde
for the aspirations of the under
served and feel no guilt over the
unpaid debt of the 40 acres and
amule that African- Americans
never received by uncompen
sated builders of this nation.
Nehemiah today serves the
descendants of these people, as
well as the recent immigrant,
and the families of single moms
trying to make a better life for
their children.
We can still save the Nehemi
ah model, which has helped
more than 500,000 families
nationally to finally stop living
like 21st century sharecroppers.
The public comment period
for this regulation ends July 10,
2007. To find out more, go to
www.getdownpayment.com or
all your Congressional repre
sentative and United States
Senator and tell them to con
tact HUD in opposition to the
proposed regulation.
The Nehemiah Corporation
believes that if you are a renter
today, tomorrow you can be a
homeowner. That is the prom
is¢ of the American dream. Let
us together recommit to pre
serving that dream for our chil
dren and the generations yet
unborn. The future is ours ©
shape.
Scott C. Syphax is the President
and CEO of Nehemiah Corpo
ration of America.
‘How do we know this is hap
pening?’ [ said, ‘Just a minute.’
[ held the receiver up outside
the booth. A whole series of
gunshots went by! The guy
said, ‘I believe it! I believe it”
There is much to believe in
this collection.
George E. Curry, former edi
tor-in-chief of Emerge magazine
and the NNPA News Service, is
a keynote speaker, moderator,
and media coach. He can be
reached at george@george
curry.com or tfrougb ’iis
Web site,
www.georgecurry.com.
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